Calculation of Turbulent Flows around a Submarine for the Prediction of Hydrodynamic Performance

Abstract

The finite volume based multi-block RANS code, WAVIS developed at KRISO, is used to simulate the turbulent flows around a submarine with the realizable k- turbulence model. RANS methods are verified and validated at the level of validation uncertainty 1.54% of the stagnation pressure coefficient for the solution of the turbulent flows around SUBOFF submarine model without appendages. Another SUBOFF configuration, axisymmetric body with four identical stern appendages, is also computed and validated with the experimental data of the nominal wake and hydrodynamic coefficients. The hydrodynamic forces and moments for SUBOFF model and a practical submarine are predicted at several drift and pitch angles. The computed results are in extremely good agreement with experimental data. Furthermore, it is noteworthy that all the computations at the present study were carried out in a PC and the CPU time required for 2.8 million grids was about 20 hours to get fully converged solution. The current study shows that CFD can be a very useful and cost effective tool for the prediction of the hydrodynamic performance of a submarine in the basic design stage.